>>91656290>alternative sources do not fucking create enough power even when funded at full throttle to cover even a fifth of our energy needsYou say that based on what? The United States is a huge country with huge land reserves and renewable natural resources. Geographically, it's poised to be the top producer of renewable energy in the world, easily generating energy in excess of its needs, with wind and hydro in the north and solar in the south.
Already, medium-scale (hundred megawatt) PV power plants cost the same (to build, maintain, and sell power to consumers) as fossil fuel power plants at sunny locations, so at the very least no new fossil fuel power plants should be built, because it's cheaper (when including health and environmental costs) to build PV. Large PV power plants (thousand megawatt) are even cheaper due to the economy of scale.
The only way fossil fuel is cheaper than PV is in non-viable locations (where there's not a lot of sun) or where there's already an existing fossil fuel power plant, so the up-front costs are null.
However, the south has tons of prime locations for PV power plants, and should never build a new fossil fuel power plant. The north is trickier with wind (that's still more expensive) and hydro (that's more scarce on locations).
So currently, all the sunshine states should not build any new fossil fuel power stations and exclusively build PV which is cheaper right now, even without factoring health and environmental benefits.
